Yukiko
by Misery Loves Fanfics
Summary: Gaara takes in a white kitten off the street. Temari watches him, and the kitten, grow. Some GaaraNaruto in chapter three, if you squint.
1. White Kitten

**_Hello Gaara-lovers and overall Naruto fans! Okay, so, small note: this is being written because it has to get out of my system so I can focus on all the other things I should be writing. Honestly, my other fanfics are sitting and rotting slowly while this story pokes at the back of my mind, going, "Write me, write me!" Well, it's been written. Happy, you pesky little muses, you? Now I can get back to doing other things. I don't know how many people will actually read this, anyhow...it's not a yaoi, which is all people seem to want to read in the Naruto section...bleh. Well, enjoy, if you possibly can._**

Gaara stopped first to stare at the tiny clump of white that lay on the ground. Curious, Temari stopped too. The way it glistened in the sunlight made it appear to her just like snow. But then her eyes caught its closed and quivering eyes and its questing feet.

_'A kitten?'_

She looked at Gaara, whose eyes were fixed on the newborn animal. His features were as still as ever, but even so he seemed to be waiting for something. Not far from its graceless steps, the little creature's siblings and mother lay in what little shade there was. Helplessly, the kitten cried out for its mother.

It was useless; Temari knew this at once. All of the other newborns were smoky gray, just like the mother herself. She would not recognize the little white kitten as her own. She glanced at Gaara again, waiting for him to lose interest in the kitten.

He didn't. For a reason she couldn't place, Temari became annoyed.

_'What is he waiting for?'_

He just kept _staring_ at it.

Finally, when it seemed as if he would never move, Gaara's hands swooped down to pick up the kitten. He held it up in the air, ignoring its protesting mews and persistent struggling. He examined it for several seconds and then lowered it to settle against his chest. It kept struggling, but Gaara did not put it down. He started to walk away.

Temari was stunned in her spot. She did manage to catch up with him only after the strength of her bewilderment lessened. That did not mean that it actually went away.

Normally, she didn't question Gaara's actions. He did the things he did because he needed to do them; this was Gaara's mindset, and it had not changed. Gaara had picked up the kitten because he needed to.

"It's a girl," Gaara said softly, offhandedly, mostly to himself; but he ended up jerking Temari out of her musings. The almost inaudible murmur baffled her even more, though she knew he was referring to the white, insignificant little animal in his arms. It had stopped struggling now. Temari didn't quite know how to reply. Was she even expected to reply?

"Um…o-oh…I see."

Gaara's eyes flickered in her direction for a moment, in a sign of awareness. He looked ahead at the road and spoke again. "I'm going to call her Yukiko. 'Yuki' for 'snow' and 'ko' for 'child'."

Temari frowned, her brow creasing with worry, though she wasn't sure if she should be worried or not. But there was a question she had to ask. Home was only a few steps away, and in a few steps Gaara could easily avoid her question. She had to ask it.

"Gaara…what…made you pick up that kitten?"

Gaara hesitated to answer. It seemed he didn't even know himself. He stopped walking. The creases in Temari's brow doubled in number.

"Gaara?"

"She…needed someone. And I think…I wanted to be the one…she needed."

Gaara mulled this answer over in his own mind as Temari took it in herself. It was a strange answer for Gaara, but somehow it clicked into place as perfectly as if it belonged. In a warped way, it seemed…right.

Satisfied with his own reasoning, Gaara fixed his eyes ahead of him and took the few steps to home. Temari followed.

She was going to have to get used to these changes.

**_Did you like it? I hope so. I plan to continue on with this stuff. More kitten drabbles. Yay. :) Erm...I would very much appreciate some constructive criticism, because some of the stuff in here felt incredibly forced to me and I wonder if it's affected the quality of the writing...so, yes, please review with good, useful things. Thank you, and I hope you continue to read._**


	2. Kankuro Meets Yukiko

**_Alright, so my other stories can rot for a little longer. I'll just scrape off the bad parts when I'm done having fun with Yukiko...they'll still be tasty, I'm sure. So, to my one actual reviewer, enjoy chapter two. _**

For two months and a day now, Temari watched the kitten—Yukiko—grow. She remembered the little creature's siblings and knew they must be bigger than this. But Yukiko was healthy. She was still growing.

She was happy.

Suddenly Temari was thinking of Gaara. He and Yukiko had become like one entity, one being since that sweltering afternoon, two months and one day ago. So to think "happy" and "growing," Temari felt she was referring as much to Gaara as she was to his tiny companion.

It was odd, though. Not once before this did she think she would ever think of Gaara as being "happy."

Yukiko passed by Temari, who watched the kitten from her seat curiously. It was rare to find her alone these days, absent from her favorite perch on Gaara's shoulder. Temari wondered what she was up to.

The kitten ambled along to the other room without giving Temari a single glance. Temari stared off into the space where she'd been.

A minute later Temari's heart gave a surprised jolt at the heavy sound of a door shutting. There was a curse, and a sharp hiss, which could only have been Yukiko. Temari sprang to her feet and dashed into the other room to find the angry feline wriggling in Kankuro's grasp. He eyed the hissing animal distastefully.

"Where the hell did this thing come from?" he muttered, without noticing that Temari was there. Temari sincerely hoped Gaara wasn't nearby. He wouldn't be overly pleased to see this.

"Kankuro!" she hissed; and he looked up at once. "Put her down!"

"Temari, what the hell is this?" he asked her, ignoring her command. "I go away for a couple months and then come back to a pest problem? Where'd this thing come from?"

"Kankuro, I'm telling you, put her down before Gaara—"

Too late. She could already feel the steel eyes behind her.

"Kankuro," Gaara said evenly, "put her down."

Kankuro dropped the cat. Hissing for good measure, Yukiko raced to Gaara and climbed up onto his shoulder. Her pinkish eyes glared intensely in Kankuro's direction.

Gaara looked her over carefully. Satisfied that no harm was done, he left a relieved Temari and a baffled Kankuro alone.

After a moment of contemplative silence, Kankuro asked, "Did I…miss something?"

Temari smiled sheepishly at him. "You just met Yukiko."

**_Yay, it's done. This chapter, anyway. I'll be doing more...yeah...so, uh, yeah. Please review and tell a friend. _**


	3. Moods

**_Chapter three! This story's getting fun. I should have started this ages ago. This chapter might be a little more fun for the people looking for yaoi or some GaaraNaruto love. There's a teeny-weeny bit of a hint at it, if you look hard enough. To my two reviewers and anyone else hiding in the shadows reading this, enjoy._**

It didn't take Temari long to learn that Gaara's mood and the kitten's were often one and the same. Their likes and dislikes were nearly parallel (though Yukiko's strong dislike of Kankuro seemed to be a personal issue of hers), from what she could see. It certainly baffled her at first, but she was quickly growing accustomed to these new discoveries. After a few days, it ceased to be a marvel.

But at the same time, she realized that Gaara's personality had molded into Yukiko's natural demeanor, rather than the other way around. His eyes remained ever stoic, but Temari could pick out a sereneness deep within in them that had once been overshadowed by tension. His mind was no longer a constant war zone.

Kankuro commented that it made him easier to live with. That was true. They didn't always have to walk on eggshells trying to keep Gaara calm anymore. "Of course, now I've got to watch out for the cat," Kankuro would add, with a touch of ire in his voice.

Still, it was nice knowing how Gaara was feeling, without having to carefully search the cryptic depths of his eyes. Yukiko was a bit more obvious about her moods. All one had to do was take a look at the kitten and they would know exactly how Gaara was feeling that day.

A very happy and affectionate Yukiko greeted one Uzumaki Naruto during his mission-induced visit from the Leaf Village. The sunny-faced ninja returned the greeting tenfold. It seemed there would be no end to the cuddling the happy creature faced.

"When'd you pick this little thing up, Gaara?" Naruto asked, holding a purring Yukiko to his chest. "She's really cute."

Gaara didn't seem inclined to answer, so Temari spoke up. "It's been a couple months since he found her. They've really become quite attached to each other."

"Aw, that's neat. Must be nice to have such a good friend." Naruto displayed his brightest grin. It rivaled the desert's sun in radiance.

Temari almost didn't catch the light pink in Gaara's cheeks right then.

A month later, Naruto visited again, with one Uchiha Sasuke in tow. Naruto cooed over how much Yukiko had grown. He was as cheerful as ever.

"Look, look, Sasuke, isn't she cute?"

Sasuke looked at the little creature indifferently. "I don't care for cats," he said.

"You're no fun, teme!"

Yukiko hissed.

Temari glanced over at Gaara's tightening fists and she couldn't help but feel that it wasn't the cat's own personal feelings toward the Uchiha that made her hate him so.

**_Yeah...cute stuff, cute stuff...well, review and tell a friend! See ya next chapter!_**


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